In Bologna, the historical past of the trans motion intersects with the reception of migrants

“Casa Caterina opened its doorways in 2018. It represented the primary try in Italy to run a shelter particularly for trans individuals on the migration pathway,” says Antonella Ciccarelli, Coordinator of the Society and Rights part at CIDAS.

I met Ciccarelli on a November morning on the cooperative’s headquarters in Bologna. On the entrance, amongst different materials for session, I discovered Casa Marielle Franco and the others (“Casa Marielle Franco and the others”), a photographic work by Francesca Leonardi and Simona Pampallona that recounts the expertise of Casa Caterina and different shelters for transgender migrants within the Emilian capital.

Right now, these amenities accommodate 28 individuals in seven shelters named after feminist and LGBT+ rights activists, similar to Marielle Franco, bell hooks and Sylvia Rivera.

The shelters in Bologna are run as a part of the Italian Ministry of the Inside’s SAI Reception and Integration System. As Ciccarelli explains, the Ministry collaborates with native authorities which are free to determine, on a voluntary foundation, to take part within the challenge. On the native degree, the municipality then makes use of third sector entities to supply varied providers (authorized recommendation, steerage, skilled retraining, job placement, language lessons, and many others.). All those that are entitled to entry the service are both asylum seekers or holders of residence permits.

As soon as the challenge was launched, Ciccarelli tells me, the primary problem was to “attempt to develop a particular mannequin of intervention.” Along with a multidisciplinary crew (authorized advisers, anthropologists, and steerage counsellors), there may be additionally a peer help employee, i.e. “an individual who has a comparable migration background, or –  for instance – an expertise of gender transition.”

The peer help employee permits shelters to “create a extra speedy relationship of belief, whereas additionally addressing points which are tougher for us to take care of.” The latter embrace points associated to “medicalisation and gender transition”, as nicely treating intercourse work or leaving intercourse work in a non-judgemental manner.

The creation of this place was the results of a long-standing collaboration with MIT (Movimento identità trans, “Trans Identification Motion”). MIT present entry to their counselling service, for the bodily, psychological, and social well being of trans individuals, in collaboration with the native well being authority and the Sant’Orsola Malpighi Hospital in Bologna. One other vital component of this collaboration is entry to a “neighborhood area the place LGBT+ individuals can meet and create a social community,” Ciccarelli provides, in order that these within the shelter can “speak to different trans, gender non-conforming or non-binary individuals about their experiences.”

Bologna and the trans neighborhood

“The historical past of Bologna is really distinctive in Italy,” says Anita Garibalde da Silva, MIT’s challenge coordinator. Because the Nineteen Seventies, Bologna has been one of the open cities within the nation in direction of this neighborhood.

MIT was based in Bologna in 1979 underneath the identify Italian transsexual motion (Italian Transsexual Motion). “For the primary time in Italy, a gaggle of trans individuals spoke out in a political, public, and structured manner,” says Garibalde da Silva. “The largest change since then has been the transition from mere survival to the opportunity of imagining rights, well being, and dignity.”

In 1982, Italy launched Regulation 164, which made gender transition attainable via each surgical procedure and the modification of non-public knowledge. This was no small feat for the time, particularly for a rustic with such a powerful Catholic custom. Even so, Italy’s laws got here lengthy after the primary such laws was launched by Sweden in 1972.

‘The largest change since then has been the transition from mere survival to the opportunity of imagining rights, well being, and dignity’ – Anita Garibalde da silva, Mit

In 1995, Marcella Di Folco, operating for the Bologna municipality, turned the primary transgender particular person to be elected as a municipal councilor in Italy. Right now, Porpora Marcasciano, one other central determine in MIT, sits on the Bologna Metropolis Council.

Along with the devoted counselling centre, MIT supplies help and safety to transgender individuals in detention amenities, coordinates a assist desk for LGBT+ migrants, presents social and well being help at native amenities and providers, carries out hurt discount and help actions for transgender intercourse employees, and supplies authorized help in opposition to discrimination and violence.

“Through the years, Bologna has recognised this political and social function,” continues Garibalde da Silva. “The eye of native establishments, shared initiatives, and integration with the social and well being community have created an ecosystem that has allowed the trans and LGBT+ neighborhood to flourish in a extra protected setting than in different cities. In fact, vital points nonetheless exist, however in comparison with Marcella Di Folco’s time, the image is radically totally different: at the moment, transgender individuals can rely on providers, understanding, experience, and neighborhood areas that merely didn’t exist earlier than.”

Not all the things is ideal, nonetheless: discrimination remains to be a actuality, entry to work stays sophisticated, and trans persons are disproportionately affected by precarity. “The trans and LGBTQIA+ neighborhood experiences a two-speed existence in Italy. On the one hand, because of the work of associations and organisations similar to MIT, there are examples of excellence; then again, we nonetheless lack a contemporary and coherent legislative framework.

“In comparison with the remainder of Europe, Italy is lagging behind. Nations similar to Spain, Malta, Portugal, Eire, and several other northern nations have launched self-determination legal guidelines, superior protections, and nationwide methods for LGBTQIA+ individuals. In Italy, many rights exist solely as a result of case legislation or the work of the third sector. The work of associations – and Bologna is a vital instance on this context – partly compensates for institutional shortcomings, however it can’t exchange the duty of the state,” concludes Garibalde da silva.

On the intersection of migration and gender id

Altreconomia experiences that “in keeping with the twenty second version of the SAI Annual Report, compiled by the Statistical Knowledge and Thematic Research division of Cittalia, as of 31 December 2023, there have been roughly 218 LGBT+ beneficiaries of the System out of a complete of 54,512 beneficiaries accepted all year long (0.4%).” This determine is “completely underestimated,” says Ciccarelli. The individuals in query “take a very long time to come back out, and there are various causes for this.” If an individual has fled “from a rustic the place being homosexual can result in a extreme judicial punishment,” they could nonetheless reside in Italy as a migrant in a “neighborhood of their nation of origin, which can replicate the identical cultural practices.”

‘From a political standpoint, what we do is prime; I imagine it was essential to make LGBT+ asylum seekers seen, as a result of fairly often they’re left invisible’ – Antonella Ciccarelli, CIDAS

Earlier than the creation of Casa Caterina, “there have been no amenities devoted to this particular group throughout the SAI,” explains Ciccarelli. This “doesn’t imply that earlier than 2018 there have been no lesbian, homosexual, trans, bisexual or intersex individuals within the reception system,” she provides with a smile, “they have been merely positioned in amenities for single males or single girls.”

“Because the creation of Casa Caterina, we’ve got turn out to be a nationwide reference level and have begun to obtain many experiences from throughout the reception system.” This technique, Ciccarelli notes, “has undergone dramatic cuts through the years.”

“From a political standpoint, what we do is prime; I imagine it was essential to make LGBT+ asylum seekers seen, as a result of fairly often they’re left invisible: I imagine that throughout the strategy of self-determination, having an area the place you’ll be able to come out and freely reside your sexual orientation and gender id is an important political apply of liberation,” concludes Ciccarelli.

Bologna’s efforts have been replicated in quite a lot of Italian cities with the assistance and help of CIDAS.

🤝 This text was produced as a part of the PULSE challenge, a European initiative supporting worldwide journalistic collaboration. Federico Caruso (Obct), Lola García-Ajofrín (The Confidential), and Dimitris Angelidis (Gesture) contributed to its creation.